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My Years as Prime Minister
 
 

My Years as Prime Minister (Hardcover)

by Jean Chretien (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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My Years as Prime Minister is Jean Chrétien’s own story, told with insight and humour, of his ten years at 24 Sussex Drive as Canada’s twentieth prime minister.

By the time he left office, Jean Chrétien had been in politics for forty years – and his experience is evident on every page of his important, engaging memoir. Chrétien loves to tell a good tale – and he does so here in the same honest, plain-spoken style of Straight from the Heart, his earlier bestselling account of his years as a Cabinet minister. He gives us a self-portrait of a working prime minister – the passionate Canadian renowned for finishing every speech with Vive le Canada!

Chrétien knows how government works, and his political instincts are sharp. Through the decade 1993 to 2003 we watch as he wins three majority elections as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Finding the country in a dreadful state, dangerously in debt and bitterly divided, he describes how his government wiped out the deficit in just four years, helped to defeat the separatists in the cliffhanger Quebec referendum, passed the Clarity Act, and set out to fulfill the economic and social promises his party made in its famous Red Books. He reveals how and why he kept the country out of the war in Iraq – a defining moment for many Canadians; led Team Canada on whirlwind trade missions around the world; and participated in a host of major international summits.

Along with his astute comments on politics and government, he gives candid portraits of a broad cast of characters. Over a beer, Tony Blair confides his hesitation about taking Britain into the Iraq War; in the corridors of the United Nations, Bill Clinton offers to speak to Quebecers on behalf of Canadian unity; while at home, Chrétien reveals the events leading up to the departure of his finance minister, Paul Martin. He recounts the dramatic night in which his quick-thinking wife, Aline, saved him from an assassination attempt at 24 Sussex Drive; and, with lively humour, he describes how he and Clinton successfully escaped from their own bodyguards – to the consternation of all.

Even in the highest office in the land, Jean Chrétien never lost his connection with ordinary Canadians. He is as warm and funny in his recollections as in person, at once combative and cool-headed, a man full of vitality and charm. Above all, from start to finish, his love for his country and his passion to keep it united run clear and deep.


About the Author

The Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien was first elected to Parliament in 1963, at the age of twenty-nine. Four years later he was given his first Cabinet post and, over the next thirty years, he headed nine key ministries. From 1993 to 2003 he served as Canada's twentieth prime minister.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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4.0 out of 5 stars AT THE VERY LEAST, HE DIDN'T SEND TROOPS TO IRAQ, Jul 28 2008
By B. C. Whitcomb "WTF?!" (Mad Cow, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I guess it's appropriate that Jean Chretien gets his own perspective on his record as prime minister out before everyone else does. There can be no doubt that others will not be so kind to the prime minister who admitted that he never met a dictator he didn't like. What can be said about the overly long reign of Jean Chretien? He had no opposition to speak of, so he could govern with near impunity. And there was the matter of that pepper spray incident in Vancouver. I suppose a case can be made that the action was necessary because there was no reason to offend President Suharto of Indonesia. And there was the comedy, when Chretien's comment about the incident consisted of "I know what pepper is -- I put it on my steak." In any case, any politician wants to present themselves as great statesmen, enlightened leaders, and second only to Jesus, so this book is no exception. By all means, read it and enjoy it. It maybe the funniest thing you'll read this year.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Relieved the monotony, Jan 31 2008
By M. J. Fenn (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Well, I didn't come to this book expecting to glean from repositories of wisdom from a soulmate.

But then, no-one would confuse the serenity of a muse with the almost lovable rogue and scrapping tactician from Shawinigan.

Of course, the many anecdotes in this book, which would have sounded even more amusing, no doubt, if delivered orally, are highly entertaining.

In Jean Chrétien's account of dealings with President Clinton and Mr. Blair, something of the situation of Canada with regard to the US and the UK is undoubtedly seen: they are generally warm and constructive, but they also reveal that Canada stands apart just a little.

Mr. Chrétien's understated (mock?) deference to his predecessor-but-one, Brian Mulroney is devastating, leaving aside the question of who was right about the Mulroney/Schreiber money troubles. He is just as gently devastating about Paul Martin, Jr., also.

If there are serious, constructive points from this man who learned English when he was aged 30, among them one must be that he believes that the place of Quebec is in Canada. That much we may deduce, coming from someone who would not be mistaken for an Anglophone Ontarian.

His treatment of the Conrad Black peerage issue is somewhat disengenuous, because, in discussing Robert Borden's views of the subject of peerages, nowhere does he mention the peerage which another Canadian Prime Minister, Richard Bennett, later received after leaving office.

Anyway, he had been around for so long that when he finally showed at Sussex Drive (which is the period covered by this volume of his memoirs) it was as if people knew to expect more of the same. And having then been one of Canada's longest-serving Prime Ministers, when he finally went, it was hard to believe that he had really gone, and this pristine volume now in the shopping malls is a poignant reminder that he is still around.

At least it can be said that politicians such as the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien relieved the monotony.
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